Ghasemi: Trump's Remarks on Dialogue are Empty and Impossible Wishes

The spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry described U.S. President Trump's statements that officials of the Islamic Republic "want to negotiate" as "empty and impossible wishes." The Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran also claimed that American officials recently sent him "messages" for negotiation "twice." On Sunday, during a conversation with reporters at the White House, Trump stated that "the situation in Iran is very bad," noting that the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran has had widespread negative consequences for Tehran, and "they want to negotiate." According to the IRNA news agency, Bahram Ghasemi, the spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, one day after Trump's remarks, called the U.S. President's statements "a repetition of the same excessive demands and ambitions of medieval and outdated powers." Ghasemi further stated, "Trump is merely expressing his empty and impossible wishes that have no alignment with existing realities." He pointed out that Iran has been familiar with U.S. pressures and sanctions for decades and added that the Islamic Republic "will never bow to the unjust pressures of the U.S." Meanwhile, Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, also stated on Tuesday that "Iran has not sent any signal or message for negotiation with the U.S." He claimed, "The Americans sent messages for negotiation twice during my recent trip to Afghanistan and are lying when they say we send them messages for negotiation." Shamkhani did not provide further details regarding this claim. About three weeks ago, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported on secret negotiations between Iranian and American diplomats in London, but Hamid Baidi-Nejad, Iran's ambassador to the UK, denied this report. On December 12, Trump also stated that the Islamic Republic is not yet ready to negotiate with the U.S. but "they will be ready." Earlier in August, Trump spoke about Washington's desire to negotiate without preconditions with Tehran, but Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, announced that negotiations with the U.S. are prohibited. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani claimed on Tuesday, December 4, that U.S. officials had indirectly requested negotiations with Tehran eight times last year and three times this year, but the Islamic Republic rejected them. Shortly after the U.S. embassy in Tehran was occupied by a group called "Students Following the Line of Imam," relations between the two countries were severed, but in subsequent years, officials from both countries negotiated several times secretly. In 2007, during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, Hossein Kazemi Qomi and Ryan Crocker, the ambassadors of Iran and the U.S. in Iraq, negotiated directly with each other. The foreign ministers of Iran and the U.S. also negotiated directly for the first time after the severance of relations during Hassan Rouhani's presidency. However, the leader of the Islamic Republic announced that the subject of these negotiations was only the nuclear agreement, and Iran would not negotiate with the U.S. on other issues. In July, over a hundred political and civil activists inside and outside Iran issued a statement referring to the "global" welcome of the U.S. President's meeting with the North Korean leader and the "dangerous situation in the region," calling for "direct and unconditional negotiations" between Iran and the U.S. This statement faced severe criticism from close associates of the leader of the Islamic Republic and officials of Hassan Rouhani's government.